Children participated in a protest in New Delhi demanding the passage of the Child and Adolescent Labor (Protection and Regulation) Bill, Aug. 29.

Razia Sultan was among hundreds of students gathered in New York on July 12 to celebrate “Malala Day,” named after the Pakistani school girl who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban.

While in New York, Ms. Sultan received a United Nations award for trying to help around 50 children in her village, in the northern Indian district Meerut, escape bonded labor and go to school.

Ms. Sultan, 15 years old, campaigned for child rights and education in her village after she left primary school in order to earn money for her family by stitching footballs. Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or the Save Childhood Movement, a nonprofit organization working to eliminate child trafficking and child labor in India, convinced her parents to withdraw her from work and enroll her in school.

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Aditi Malhotra/The Wall Street Journal

Razia Sultan, right, and Kailash Satyarthi during the demonstration against child labor, New Delhi, Aug. 29.

On Thursday, Ms. Sultan spoke at Jantar Mantar, central Delhi, during a demonstration against child labor. Around 200 children and 100 adults were at the protest, demanding the passage of the Child and Adolescent Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Bill, which prohibits the employment of children up to the age of 14 in any kind of industry. It also states that children under 18 shouldn’t be employed in any hazardous work.

“We are asking for our rights,” Ms. Sultan said into a microphone as she stood on stage Thursday. The children at the protest raised their hands and joined in. “We are asking for our rights, not begging on the streets,” they shouted.

The Child and Adolescent Labor Bill also says employers who don’t abide by the rules should be punished with a maximum jail sentence of three years. The United Nations says there have been only 4,000 successful prosecutions against employers in India in the last 25 years.

In August 2012, India’s cabinet approved a proposal for amending a child labor act put in place in 1986, but the amendment bill, which was introduced in India’s upper house of Parliament late last year, is still pending approval.

“It is shocking that while the food security bill has been passed in the Lok Sabha [India’s lower house of Parliament], there is yet another pressing issue that is being ignored,” said Kailash Satyarthi, the founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan and chairman of the Global March Against Child Labor.

“We urge the Parliament to pass the Child Labor (Prohibition and Regulation) Bill with utmost urgency,” he added.

Members of Walk Free, an international nonprofit organization fighting modern slavery, and Avaaz, a website that helps activists mobilize support, were also at the march Thursday. In May, the two organizations invited signatories for a petition calling on India’s Parliament to avoid further delay in passing the bill.

The response to the petition has been overwhelming, with more than a million signatories from 183 countries, said Debra Rosen, who works with Walk Free. Mr. Satyarthi added that the petition was submitted to Prime Minister’s office late Thursday.

The Prime Minister’s Office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Ms. Rosen said implementing law in India is a longwinded process because there are “so many decision-makers to be influenced.”

“I also see here an apprehension when it comes to resisting the status quo. ‘It’s just the way things are,’ is something that I have heard people say repeatedly,” she added.

India also hasn’t ratified two International Labor Organization conventions on child labor.

Kishan Kumar, a 10 year old at Thursday’s march who studies at a government-run school in Delhi, said children have other worries too. “I know we are here to save our childhood. But, first at least make water and electricity available in my school,” he said.

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